1. rightness (n) a: accordance with conscience or morality b: appropriate conduct; doing the right thing c: conformity to fact or truth 2. truth (n) a: the state of being the case b: the body of real things, events, and facts

Saturday, November 11, 2006

KISSINGER, SCOWCROFT, GATES

I love you,You love me,We're best friends like friends should be,With a great big hug,And a kiss from me to you,Won't you say you love me too ~ Barney

Lukery at WotIsItGood4 is pondering a possible Senate confirmation of Robert Gates as Defense Secretary, and his argument is that the Democrats should oppose the nomination because it's another attempt to put one of Daddy Bush's longtime cronies in a key position.

Given the skeletons in Gates' closet, I have to point out a few things, because the nomination of Gates does not bode well for Kurds. Some backgrounder:

Robert Gates is a protégé (read: lapdog) of Scowcroft; Scowcroft is a protégé (read: lapdog) of Kissinger, and what Kurd can forget Kissinger?

If the Democrats don't obstruct the Gates nomination, it will be very enlightening, because by Thursday after the elections, Scowcroft (the friendly face of the pashas and Deep State in America) was already in Ankara, and meeting with just about every "business" organization to finalize the thawing of the US-Turkish relationship. Naturally, he was there as the head of the ATC. I posted a little about this yesterday, but here's a roundup of the Scowcroft visit since then:

But Rumsfeld's planned successor, former Central Intelligence Agency Director Robert Gates, belongs to a totally different school. He was a protégée of former president George H. W. Bush, and he has never worked in the president's administration.Gates is part of a "realist" camp in the Republican Party, whose most prominent members include James Baker, secretary of state for the elder Bush, and Brent Scowcroft, the elder Bush's national security adviser. Gates' close relationship with Scowcroft, who also heads the American-Turkish Council, an organization of mainly large U.S. companies doing business with Turkey, could be a plus from the perspective of relations with Ankara, some analysts suggest.

Turkish-language media, at this moment, is carrying virtually all the same news.

Big lies from the Turks:

After the closed-door meeting [with Scowcroft], TABA President Uğur Terzioğlu told reporters that during the meeting the issue of Turkey and the United States moving closer in every field was discussed. with particular emphasis on the commercial, military and political areas. He said that while in previous years only the issue of military cooperation was raised, today cooperation in tourism, textile and energy was being discussed. He underlined that TABA was not a political association and that it was aiming to increase friendship and cooperation at every stage between Turkey and the United States as well as to bring American capital to Turkey.

Right, it's all about friendship and closeness, hugs and kisses. We're all best friends; we're all members of one big, happy, loving, non-dysfunctional family.

You know, when they say stupid things like that, the only thing my mind flashes on is Barney. Scowcroft and his Turkish counterparts must be really stupid if they think that we are stupid enough to believe this drivel about friendship. There is no such thing as friendship in politics or business.

There will also likely be adverse implications of the Democratic takeover of Congress for Turkey, although Turkey is never an actor in U.S. domestic politics, Turkish diplomats fear.

The last time that Scowcroft visited Ankara as head of ATC was in December, 2005, at the same time that Muller (FBI) and Goss (CIA) were making their pilgrimages to the regime. All of that was in preparation for Rice's visit in April, at which time she gave the US blessing for Turkish and Iranian attacks against the Kurdish people, and set the stage for Gul's visit to DC in July, when the US-Turkish Strategic Vision document was finalized.

Scowcroft's running off to Ankara immediately after the elections therefore indicates to me that big changes are on the horizon, and if Scowcroft's lapdog, Gates, becomes the Secretary of Defense, expect continued Deep State involvement in US domestic politics.

I wanted to point out something else from Lukery, which was the passing away this last week of CBS newsman, Ed Bradley. Back in 2002, Ed Bradley conducted an interview with Sibel Edmonds for 60 Minutes. Lukery managed to find a series of Youtube videos that contain the footage of the interview, and he posted them all, here. I highly recommend the interview series because it's a reminder of Big Lie #2 above, to wit: "Turkey is never an actor in U.S. domestic politics." Also keep in mind that Muller (FBI) was one of those to hot-foot it to Ankara almost a year ago. Each one of the videos is no more than 4 minutes or so.

Having said that, there's another reason why Ed Bradley should be remembered by Kurds, and that is that he's one of the few mainstream media people, and I think 60 Minutes was the only American TV news program to air an interview with Abdullah Ocalan, way back in 1996. The gist of the interview was American arms sales to Turkey and the conflict against the Kurdish people, so there are others interviewed, too. For example:

ED BRADLEY: Few could argue with scenes like this. German television was documenting this 1992 Kurdish holiday celebration in Cizre, when government troops opened fire. At least four civilians were killed. Yet in the face of mounting evidence of military repression of Kurds, the Turkish Government categorically denies any wrongdoing.

ONUR OYMAN: Can you believe, for a moment, that a democratic country can kill its own women and children?

ED BRADLEY: It's happened.

ONUR OYMAN: Just -- just -- just to -- to accuse terrorists? It's against common sense. It's against our traditions. It's against our way of life. And you cannot find such cases throughout our history. We are not criminals. We are not barbarians in Turkey.

Blah, blah, blah, Onur.

The unprovoked massacre by the Ankara regime against the unarmed civilians of Cizîr in 1992, and other massacres at the same time in other parts of Şirnex, inlcuding the city itself, was something that I mentioned in yesterday's post. Ed Bradley's report, from 60 Minutes in January, 1996, is titled "An American Dilemma." It was Kevin McKiernan who arranged the interview with Ocalan for 60 Minutes. Read more about that here.

Thanks to the work of those journalists like Ed Bradley, Kevin McKiernan, or Aliza Marcus, no one in the US leadership or media can claim they didn't know.